Movie Magic

The Pentacle News and Books

The Pentacle & Books officially opened its doors on December 31th, 2015, right by ocean’s terrace in beautiful Santa Monica. Instantly, it was thought of as a joke. Who the hell pays Santa Monica beachfront-style rent to run an occult bookstore?!
Well, you guys did. Because the real prize is underground.

In the basement is the real treasure-trove: a Supernal node of ley-lines known as a Hallow, which produces the Mana you require to study magick and cast your spells. It’s one of the most potent such hallows in Los Angeles and produces 5 dots of mana daily to a maximum of 10. Should it have tapped out, the left-over is repurposed into Tass – The physical representation of magic, which can be devoured in the form of clear spring-water which pools downstairs at the Hallows nexus. Don’t let the landlord see it though, he may try to patch the leaky floor.

Which leads us to your land-lord. You’ve never seen him. Ever. The rental arrangement was negotiated by an agent who curiously enough, refused to rent the apartment on the third floor as the occupant is, he claims, your absentee landlord. Still, you haven’t heard a single sound from upstairs in the year since you signed your Cabal compact and moved in, in late December 2015.

There are emergency cots downstairs for those members of the cabal in need of a place to laydown or a rest after working a lengthy ritual. There is also a sink, and a stove which is more a pair of hotplates inexpertly wired together.

Upstairs houses the, currently somewhat sparse, private library of your cabal. There are one or two real grimoires, but most of the books are encyclopedic, academic or just so downright ancient that it makes no sense to modern eyes. There is also a PC and a scanner-printer, for the optimistic, but ever-put-off-project of digitizing the whole library.

The main floor is half comic book store, half yard sale, half homeopathic-medicine-pharmacy and all crazy to well-adjusted visitors. The shelves cover mainstream occultism, astrology and hermeticism, kabbalah, Feng Shui and one very neglected shelf of softcore vampire fiction. By the counter there are signs advertising the cabal-member’s personal projects and business.

The shop does alright business. Enough to pay the rent, at to give you all a respectable minor stipend for disposable income every week.

This post will be updated as the story progresses to reflect on any plot-twist!